Chris & Cosey Technø Primitiv

Label / Conspiracy International
Category / Abstract, Industrial, Synth-pop, T.O.P.Y.
Code / CTITP2023

1985’s ‘Technø Primitiv’ is a sterling example of the EX-TG duo at a crest of their powers, shining a light forward for synth-pop, body music, and the post-industrial era. Only four years earlier they had departed Throbbing Gristle and embarked on one of electronic music’s most feted journeys with a debut couplet of LPs ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Trance’, that set the bar high for ‘80s machine music. However with 1984’s third studio album ‘Songs of Love and Lust’ they went sleeker, sexier and more club-focussed in a way that carries on into this one, albeit biased to a more techgnostic steeliness conveyed by Cosey’s piercing stare on the cover. The balance of Chris’ ingenious rhythm programming and sound design coupled with Cosey’s divine vox and melodies is peerless on ‘Technø Primitiv’. They may not have been producing chart-troubling music, but they did specialise in club moves that have endured and feed forward to today. The slow, thrumming momentum and quarter-tone refrain of ‘He’s an Arabian’ is a masterpiece on the cusp of digi-dancehall and synth-pop that would become a Belgian staple (leading to their LPs for LD Records), while we also find big highlights in the nimble electro-pop stepper ‘Hazey daze’ featuring Cosey’s dreamiest vox and dubbed cornet, as is the naïf charm of ‘Stolen Kisses’, while the sound deign and edits are most evident on the title tune’s fractal jump-cuts and outernational cyberpunk noir of ’Do or Die’. For those unfamiliar with the duo’s catalogue, it may be difficult to reconcile their past in Throbbing Gristle with these melodic, wiry dance-pop styles, but joining the dots with these guys is really half the fun. Classic.

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Chris & Cosey Technø Primitiv

Same Artist :: Chris & Cosey

Same Label :: Conspiracy International

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